National Negotiations Update #8
California
Alameda-- Contract talks have soured, they want a mediator.
Hayward-- Long story short, two superintendents in the Hayward school district received 16% raises, the teachers asked for the same-- only fair, right? District said no, how about half of that or so. Here is some background on the situation. This article is about strike preparations. The second day of the strike is documented. A scab complains about having someone pound their fist on his car. Indymedia gives some more info and commenters add to the discussion. This blogspot site is run by Tennyson High School journalism students and documents the work stoppage. You can also check out their myspace page, but I wouldn't do it from school if I were you.
Inglewood-- 150 teachers protested a 1% raise the school board offered. In addition, 180 teachers of the local had received suspicious layoff notices and recalls (including tenured teachers) that smacked of intimidation.
Monterey-- North Monterey County Unified School District will not experience continued sick-outs by the North Monterey County Federation of Teachers; the two parties have reached a tentative agreement. You may remember the sickouts (that were not sponsored by the union) had caused the districts some distress, as documented in an earlier NNU.
Conneticut
Greenwich-- Administrators have performance pay now, why doesn't the Greenwich EA accept it in their new contract? (At least that's the question the school board is asking these days). The GEA President expresses her skepticism; I think they're going to pass on that one.
Florida
Manatee-- The Manatee EA and the Manatee School District are in negotiations.
Illinois
Elgin-- the teacher union vows that they will not use the Superintendent's recent raise and salary in excess of $400k as a chip in negotiations.
Peoria-- A rank and file member of District 150 is unhappy with the job their President has done, so they are challenging them at the polls. In fact, all of the open seats are being contested, something that is quite rare in teacher union elections.
Indiana
Sandridge-- Sandridge Elementary District 172 and the Sandridge EA are at impasse, their March meeting with a mediator was called off 'cause there was flooding in the EA President's home. Doh!
Minnesota
Everywhere-- Interesting article on the plight of teachers and pay in Minnesota; their contract renegotiation cycle will begin shortly.
New Hampshire
Nashua-- A letter in support of the teachers and their needs in negotiations made the local paper. Surprising, because 229 requests from teachers for religious leave on Good Friday shut down the 1200+ teacher district.
New Jersey
Mannington Township-- Salem County Vocational Technical School District teachers have been working without a contract since last year. Fact finding has been scheduled for May.
New York
Valley Stream-- Valley Stream Teachers Association has a hearing with PERB coming up. Why? It's pretty interesting, actually. In New York and California, school districts are organized according to grade level. In the past, the 4 school districts have negotiated with VSTA as a whole entity. Now the high school district is trying to negotiate separate from the other three, prompting the PERB hearing-- the union ain't having it.
Ohio
Ledgemont-- The Ledgemont EA has reached a tentative 3 year deal with the school board.
Colerain Township-- The Northwest Local School District and the Northwest EA have reached a tentative agreement; members had previously authorized the bargaining team to call for a strike. You can read more about the authorization here.
Pennsylvania
Lehman Township-- Lake-Lehman School District bargaining is not going well. The teacher's union recently voted to authorize the bargaining team to strike, if need be.
4 comments:
Hey Dr. H. Here's an update. We have fact-finding May 10, with a neutral who made both sides agree to mediation following the fact-finding presentations. A strike authorization vote is scheduled for May 15.
That's very interesting about the high school teachers in Valley Stream wanting to negotiate for themselves. I've often wondered whether that might be a good idea for us in NYC.
We are waiting for word from our administration before beginning our 07-09 bargain. We'd like to go to the table with the understanding that both sides will not touch health insurance or retirement/early retirement during these negotiations. They are thinking about it.
Is your district big enough that they can offer some kind of a buyout to encourage some of your more experienced/ expensive folks to take the cash and walk?
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